Citizens concerned over higher than average wrecks at intersection

PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - An intersection in Pitt County is giving some people a headache.

“Get it straight; put a turnaround or a roundabout. They need to do something just to slow the people down,” said Pitt County resident Earl Bunch.

Neighbors who live near the so-called K-intersection, which crosses NC 903, Red Forbes, and Pocosin Road, say they hear wrecks often, and when they occur, most of the cars are totaled.

“The car flipped a few times. I know this past incident, the car flipped rush, so when you hear car incident, you hear the crash and when you hear what, you think, oh my god, someone dead,” said Pitt County resident LeeAnn Taylor.

A report from the NC Dot shows there have been 32 total wrecks at the intersection in the past five years, with 15 of them causing injuries.

“We have been looking at it for a while. It showed up as part of the highway, safety improvement, program candidate location, so it went through that process,” said NC DOT Traffic Engineer Steven Hamilton.

Hamilton, says the 32 wrecks is a higher-than-average number of crashes for the amount of volume the road has. He says that alone should create the desire for change.

“As soon as the board of transportation releases the funding, hopefully right away acquisition, will be funded this month and then construction next month, and it’s going to be re-aligning the intersection a little bit and installing an all-way stop,” said Hamilton.

Hamilton said if funding is approved, they are looking to start construction in the area in June and be finished by August.

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